House Move Seen As Catalyst

City Focusing On Home Ownership In Neighborhood

Mayor Eddie A. Perez visited Asylum Hill Friday to place a cornerstone in a Victorian building seen as a catalyst in a wider redevelopment plan focusing on homeownership.

The brick structure named ``Victorian Lady'' was moved this summer from 247 Sigourney St. to 21 Ashley St. to save it from the wrecking ball.

Now it stands as the centerpiece in a plan that would include five other blighted buildings on Ashley, Garden and Sargeant streets in Asylum Hill, one of the poorest of Hartford's neighborhoods.

``When we talk about historic preservation, these are the neighborhoods,'' Perez said from Ashley Street with its many century-old Queen Anne houses. ``This is some of the best housing stock in the city. What we have to do is extend the activity from downtown into these houses.''

The five other buildings are: three brick Italianate structures at 8 Ashley St., 18 Ashley St. and 221 Garden St.; and two Victorian buildings at 227 and 246 Sargeant St.

Among the groups with a hand in saving the ``Victoria Lady'' are the nonprofit Hartford Preservation Alliance, the newly formed Northside Institutions Neighborhood Alliance, or NINA, and Asylum Hill Ventures, a rental property firm that donated the lot. In July, the building was placed on blocks and moved.

The city has committed $175,000 in ``appraisal gap'' funds to be paid out at the completion and sale of the homes. State Rep. Marie Kirkley-Bey, an Ashley Street resident, has secured another $50,000 in state bond money toward the total project cost of $2.3 million. The project will be completed in phases.

Currently, fewer than 10 percent of Asylum Hill residents own their homes, compared with a citywide average of 24 percent and a national average of 66 percent, city officials said.

Planners acknowledge that some of the vacant buildings slated for restoration have attracted prostitutes and drug users and say they hope the restorations will help clean up the area.

The developer is Asylum Hill Homes LLC. The group's members include NINA, Broad-Park Development Corp. and Mercy Housing.

The restoration into owner-occupied housing includes four single-family homes and two two-family homes. Owner's units will feature between 1,700 and 2,500 square feet of finished living space on two floors and a third floor of flexible space.

Sales prices are expected to range from $140,000 for the smaller single-family home at 8 Ashley Street to $205,000 for the large two-family home at 246 Sargeant St.

NINA executive director Kenneth D. Johnson said Asylum Hill should be attractive to potential investors because of its stock of spacious historic homes.

``We like to say `space and a sense of place' is what we're selling,'' he said.